KARACHI, Dec 16: The Sindh Assembly proceedings on Friday were adjourned abruptly following noisy protest and uproar, as well as walkout by the combined opposition, less than 20 minutes after the house reassembled to resume the debate on the Kalabagh dam issue.

No business, except for the oath taking of three newly-elected MPAs of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and fateha for the deceased named by members, could be taken up during the deliberations which had already started two hours late, at 11am.

Irfan Gul Magsi, a member of the Panel of Chairmen who was presiding over the session, announced the adjournment till December 21 when he failed to restore order.

Soon after the fateha, leader of the opposition Nisar Ahmad Khuhro tried to speak on a point of order but the chair ignored his request for permission to speak, and switched over to the next item on the agenda, which was the administration of oath to the new MPAs.

The chair’s attitude provoked many opposition members who stood up in protest. The chairman asked them to take their seats, assuring them that he would allow them to speak after the oath was administered.

As soon as the oath taking process commenced, opposition benches started chanting slogans against the alleged rigging that, according to them, helped the MQM candidates, Khalid Bin Wilayat, Dr Saghir Ahmad and Nishat Mohammad Zia Qadri, win the by-elections on PS-106, 117 and 120, respectively. Amid the slogans of ‘Dhandli… Dhandli’ (rigging), the opposition members started leaving their seats and staged a token walkout to register their protest.

While the protesting members were leaving the hall through one gate and re-entering through the other, Minister for Mines and Minerals Irfanullah Marwat kept reminding them of the role of opposition in democracy. “Look at these champions of democracy… they cannot even tolerate elected members taking oath. It is not treasury benches’ conduct, but the opposition’s intolerance that is preventing democracy to flourish.” He continued to speak but was not audible due to the rumpus.

When Mr Khuhro again tried to raise his point of order, the chairman said that all opposition members should take their seats first. His tone was a bit strong and led to an exchange of harsh remarks between him and Mr Khuhro.

This added to the rumpus as many members from both the sides stood up and started shouting down each other. Some of them gathered in front of the speaker’s rostrum and kept chanting: Ghunda gardi naheen chale gee.

Despite repeated calls by the chair for order, the agitating members continued with their protest. After failing to restore discipline, the chair warned them of adjourning the sitting if they did not pay heed to his calls for maintaining decorum of the house.

However, the warning also fell on deaf ears and the chair finally called it a day, announced a five-day recess.

The opposition members were stunned by the adjournment of the session for five days as they were not expecting such a long break that left the urgent agenda in pending. Those who had come fully prepared to advocate the Sindh case with the help of facts and figures looked even more dejected and were heard saying that the treasury benches were running away from the debate.